in the comments below aziz makes reference to slc24a5, a gene where its variation is responsible for 30-40% of the between group variance in complexion when the groups are africans and europeans. that is, without differences in skin color there might be less prejudice.

unfortunately, i think this is wrong. on the specific aspect of phenotype, chinese exhibited contempt toward light-skinned europeans due to their “big noses” and “hairiness.” in other words, skin color is a nice shorthand because it is very salient, skin is our biggest organ. but it is not the only feature. from what i can tell among south asians there is admiration (on average) for “sharp” features, which basically seems to mean more europoid ones (i get this impression only from talking to brown people in my 20s, as a younger person i didn’t know such a term existed because the only brown people i knew was my family).

on a more general note, it seems that “groupishness” is probably “baked into the cake” when it comes to our species. people exhibit prejudice based on customs, languages, etc. see the book of ezra, or the extreme prejudice suffered by groups like the burakumin. to outsiders the differences would seem trivial, but within these groups they are highly significant.

of course this does not mean that we should not attempt to change on the margins. murder will always exist, but there is variation across societies as to its frequency and all cultures ban the practice. but the race against group prejudice is probably an eternal one, and sometimes i think americans reduce it down to a few prominent characters (religion, race, class) when it is a more general issue, and so presume that it is soluble by ameliorating the dimensions along which prejudice exists. e.g., consider the idea that with total race mixture prejudice would disappear.